The ET Campus Stars programme is India’s largest hunt for the brightest engineering minds in the country. The jury for the sixth edition of the programme, which is currently underway, boasts of an impressive lineup of tech and business leaders, including Daisy Chittilapilly, President, Cisco India & SAARC, Santhosh Kumar, Managing Director, Texas Instruments – India, Shailendra Katyal, Managing Director, Lenovo India P Ltd, and Lalit Singh, Managing Director, McGraw Hill
The august jury panel also includes startup founders and product leaders of some of the most notable companies of India’s internet economy. These individuals include Ashwin Damera, Co-founder and CEO of Eruditus & Emeritus, Dale Vaz, Chief Technology Officer of Swiggy, Kailash Nadh, Chief Technology Officer of Zerodha, and Shreyasi Singh, Founder and CEO of Harappa Education, among a host of other such venerable names from the Indian startup
Since its inception in 2017, the ET Campus Stars program has garnered the participation of over 2 lakh engineering students hailing from over 2000+ engineering institutions located all over the nation. The ETCS program is divided into four distinct stages, each of which has its own unique objective. The program’s overarching goal is to encourage a culture of innovation among the brightest young minds in the country by placing them in realistic situations and judging them based on criteria such as their capacity for leadership and critical thinking.
The ‘Meet the Jury’ round of the ETCS evaluation process, which is the first round of the process, is also one of the most distinctive aspects of it. As a part of this final evaluation, the students who were shortlisted get the opportunity to meet and have a one-on-one interaction with a member of the ETCS Jury Panel. During this meeting, the panellists not only interact with the students but also evaluate them. After this meeting, the final list of the ET Campus Stars winners is published.
More information about the members of the ET Campus Stars 6.0 committee is provided below:
President of Cisco India and SAARC, Daisy Chittilapilly, says the following: Dedicated to encouraging young people to enter the field of technology and guiding new businesses in the development of innovative technological solutions to some of the world’s most pressing societal problems, Daisy Chittilapilly, President of Cisco’s India and SAARC theatre, has more than 25 years of experience in the technology business, which includes her 18 years of experience in leadership positions at Cisco. She is responsible for the strategy and sales, operations, and investments to promote long-term growth in the SAARC region and India in her current role. Her responsibilities include India. In addition to these roles, Chittilapilly is a member of the advisory council for the non-profit organization known as “Dragonflies Everywhere” and serves as Co-Chair for the FICCI National Committee for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation.
Prof. Dr. Frank Gielen is a member of the Executive Board and the Education Director at EIT InnoEnergy. Prof. Dr. Frank Gielen has a wealth of experience conducting research and development in the fields of telecommunications and software technology. Prof. Dr. Frank Gielen, who is currently serving as a member of the Executive Board and as the Director of Education for EIT InnoEnergy, has previous experience in a variety of fields, including the acquisition of venture capital, university-industry collaborative research, and the formation of spin-off companies. In addition to that, he holds a teaching position at the University of Ghent in the field of software technology entrepreneurship. After beginning his career in the United States with AT&T Bell Labs as a software programmer, Professor Gielen went on to hold the position of director of software technology at Alcatel. In the past, he has also worked with the companies Tellium and iMinds.
Chief Technology Officer at Zerodha Kailash Nadh says the following: Kailash Nadh, a self-taught coder with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (2008) and a Doctor of Philosophy in Artificial Intelligence & Computational Linguistics (2011) from Middlesex University in London, founded the tech team and built the technology for Zerodha, one of the biggest online stock brokers in India. Nadh is also a self-taught programmer. Nadh, who is a strong believer in the practical application of coding as well as learning from building things, will be evaluating and judging shortlisted candidates as part of the final assessment round at the ET Campus Stars 6.0 competition.
Chief Technology Officer of Swiggy, Dale Vaz, says the following: Dale Vaz, Chief Technology Officer at Swiggy, will be joining us in our mission to discover the next generation of engineers in India who have the potential to shape the technological landscape of the country’s future. In his present position, Vaz’s primary responsibility is to steer the foodtech unicorn toward becoming a business that is led by AI and ML. Before joining Swiggy, he worked as the tech director for Amazon India. He has over 18 years of experience as a software developer and has built technological platforms for businesses located in three different countries and six different development centers.
The Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Harappa Education, Shreyasi Singh, Says Shreyasi Singh, a seasoned journalist who also founded and serves as the CEO of Harappa Education, will be joining the group of judges for the ET Campus Stars 6.0 competition. She has over 18 years of experience in a variety of fields, including teaching, higher education administration, education entrepreneurship, book writing, broadcast journalism, print journalism, editorial leadership for entrepreneurship and business reportage, and editorial leadership for business reportage. Her experience also includes producing books. Her business, Harappa Education, is an online learning establishment that provides a total of 25 unique classes that cover a variety of topics related to cognitive, social, and behavioral abilities.
Hari Vasudev, Senior Vice President of Retail Technology Platforms at Walmart India and Head of Country: At the sixth iteration of the ET Campus Stars competition, Hari Vasudev, Senior Vice President of Retail Technology Platforms at Walmart India and Country Head, is one of the distinguished members of the panel. Vasudev is currently in a position where he is responsible for supervising the development and implementation of scalable and leverageable capabilities and systems, both internally and externally to the organization. Aside from that, he has previous experience working for companies such as Yahoo and Flipkart.
As the Head of Technology Services at Sun Life, Archana Verma says: At the ET Campus Stars 6.0 competition, one of the eminent jury members is Archana Verma, Head Technology Services for Sun Life. Archana Verma is an accomplished leader who has over 26 years of experience in the business. Verma has a lengthy history of professional experience in the industry, specifically in establishing, managing, and transforming delivery centers with a global footprint. He has worked for companies such as Accenture, AON, and Aithent Technologies. She attended both Delhi University and the Management Development Institute and graduated from both of those institutions.
Jyothirlatha B, Chief Technology Officer at Godrej Capital: Jyothirlatha, Chief Technology Officer at Godrej Housing Finance, has an excellent track record of creating and nurturing stable systems across the retail financial services sector. She has nearly three decades of experience in the industry, making her one of the most experienced professionals in the field. At Godrej Housing Finance, where she currently works, she is in charge of leading the company’s strategy for digital transformation. Earlier in her career, she held positions with companies such as DHFL, Tata Consultancy Services, ICICI Bank, and Vodafone. In these capacities, she played a pivotal role in the development of innovation initiatives that ensured scalable infrastructure and organizational cyber security posture.
eBay’s Country Head for India and South East Asia, Vidmay Naini, said the following: As the Country Head for India and South East Asia at eBay, Vidmay Naini is not only an accomplished business and people executive, but also oversees teams that are multicultural and diverse across the region. In his present position, he is working to build eBay for exports in India and the Southeast Asian region by fostering the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and developing economic opportunities for everyone. In addition to this, Naini is experienced in providing consultation and consulting services to the government and industry, and she is a member of the CII National ecommerce committee.
Geetha Manjunath, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NIRAMAI, Says Geetha Manjunath, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of NIRAMAI, has led her business to develop a novel solution for detecting early-stage breast cancer in a non-invasive and radiation-free method using AI and machine learning solutions. This method has the potential to save lives. She has over 25 years of research experience in the IT industry and has led numerous research projects in a variety of fields, including artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing (cloud computing), semantic web (semantic web), and others. The CSI Gold Medal, the BIRAC WinER Award 2018, a spot on Forbes’ List of the Top 20 Self-Made Women 2020, the Accenture Vahini Innovator of the Year Award from the Economic Times, and the Women Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 award from BioSpectrum India are just some of the accolades that Manjunath has received for her work as an entrepreneur and innovator.
Tech Mahindra’s Seshan Ramachandran, Senior Vice President and Global Head of HLS Delivery, said: Seshan Ramachandran, SVP & Global Delivery Head – HLS, Tech Mahindra, will be serving as a jury member for ET Campus Stars 6.0. Ramachandran is a well-known global business leader who has over 24 years of experience in diversified IT and digital delivery for global clients across domains including the services industry and technology product companies, as well as product development and large-scale outsourcing. In the ‘Meet the Jury’ round, which is the last phase of the ET Campus Stars program, Ramachandran, who has actively managed the strategy, operations, and implementation of major transformational outsourcing engagements for global clients, will be interacting with the students. This round is the final phase of the ET Campus Stars program.
The Managing Director of McGraw Hill in India, Lalit Singh, said the following: Lalit Singh, a well-known figure in the field of education and the Managing Director of McGraw Hill – India, will preside over the judging group of the sixth iteration of the ET Campus Stars competition. He has worked as an administrator for more than 18 years in the healthcare, medical, and higher education industries. During that time, he has gained experience in a variety of functional areas, such as solution selling, channel management, digital product development, business development, and general management. During the round known as “Meet the Jury,” Singh will interact with the students who were chosen for further consideration and address any questions they may have.
The following statement was made by Santhosh Kumar, Managing Director of Texas Instruments in India: Santosh Kumar has worked with industry leaders from all over the world in the fields of business, engineering (electronic systems and products), product conceptualization, creation, and execution. He has almost 20 years of professional experience in these fields. Kumar is currently the Managing Director of Texas Instruments – India. Previously, he was in charge of managing the product teams for TI’s C6000 video and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). In his previous position, Kumar labored to expand TI’s ADAS business in collaboration with a wide range of clients all over the world and engineering teams. Additionally, he has served in a variety of leadership positions pertaining to R&D for TI India.
Shailendra Katyal, Managing Director, Lenovo India P Ltd: With over 20 years of experience, Shailendra Katyal, Managing Director, Lenovo India has experience working in areas connected to P&L leadership, M&A and marketing. In addition to that, he has experience working in the FMCG and consumer technology industries. Katyal managed the consumer business at Lenovo India PC and Smart Devices Group before being promoted to the position of Managing Director at Lenovo India. Prior to this promotion, Katyal held the position of Executive Director at Lenovo India PC and Smart Devices Group. Since he joined Lenovo for the first time in 2011, he has worked in a variety of departments, including marketing, personal PC and tablets, home and small business, and e-commerce, among others. Before he started working for Lenovo, he held positions with companies such as Wipro and Marico.
Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eruditus & Emeritus Ashwin Damera: Eruditus & Emeritus is an online learning platform that provides professional courses and certification programs from some of the most prestigious universities and institutes in India. Ashwin Damera is the Co-founder and CEO of the company. Ashwin is a certified Chartered Accountant in addition to being an angel investor. He received his MBA from Harvard Business School and is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Damera began his career with Citigroup and, in 2005, co-founded Travelguru, which was later purchased by Travelocity in 2009. Driven by a deep-seated desire to ensure that the next generation of world leaders has access to education of the highest caliber, Damera began his career with Citigroup.
President and Group Chief Technology Officer of Mobility at Reliance Jio, Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar: Shyam Prabhakar Mardikar, President, Group Chief Technology Officer for Mobility at Reliance Jio, has more than 24 years of experience working in the telecommunications business across Network and IT domains in Strategy, Planning, Engineering, and Operations across India and Europe. He is considered a thought leader in technology. Mardikar has worked throughout the course of his career for a number of different businesses, including Airtel and Lebara. In addition, he has held the position of Deputy General Manager in the Department of Telecommunications in India. In addition to that, he was a member of the executive management committee of GSMA.
